JAPMA is pleased to have been granted permission to reprint the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. This important consensus statement dealing with standards for the performance of randomized, controlled clinical trials has been endorsed by many of the top medical journals throughout the world. Some of these publications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and the Annals of Dermatology, to name just a few, now include the CONSORT statement in their instructions to authors and many also require the statement’;s checklist to be completed by investigators before considering a research trial for publication.
At this time, JAPMA has decided to publish the CONSORT statement not as a requirement, but rather as a guide and a goal for current and future investigators in podiatric medicine and surgery. We realize that many of the criteria set forth in the CONSORT statement may be difficult to meet initially, but they are lofty standards by which future research should be, and will be, judged. The JAPMA Editorial Staff hopes that podiatric medical investigators will use the statement and checklist to evaluate and design future projects to ensure that podiatric medical research is performed at the same levels as to what is published in other peer-reviewed medical journals.
In a world where the term “outcomes-based medicine” has become equivalent to “quality,” it is important for all of us involved in podiatric medicine to generate new information, and critically evaluate old information, on a level playing field.
The Editorial Staff would like to thank Karl Landorf, DipAppSc(Pod), GradDipEd, from the School of Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, for recommending the CONSORT statement to us for publication. His original commentary is published as further introduction of this important topic to the podiatric medical research community.
